


Dodge This

by reliquiaen



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 16:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4926838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reliquiaen/pseuds/reliquiaen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "in an AU where Mari and Yui are already dating, Mari and Kyoko want to sign up for a dodgeball tournament that requires a minimum of 3 people per team. guess who's their 3rd. Kyoko can throw like hell, Mari can dodge like hell, Yui can get hit like hell. Mari does not approve."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dodge This

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xairathan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xairathan/gifts).



> Comes with the usual disclaimers.

Kyoko – as was her way – banged into Mari’s apartment without knocking or warning or any kind of announcement. Highly typical, really. At least Yui wasn’t home and Mari could glare at Kyoko for slamming through the door as much as she wanted. Yui was always much nicer about it; accommodating almost, _encouraging_.

As Mari twisted to fix Kyoko with her glare, a sheet of paper was thrust into her face.

“Look. At. This,” Kyoko demanded. Each of those three words was very clearly a distinct sentence.

Sighing, Mari tugged the paper from her friend’s grip. “I can’t read it when it’s that close to my nose,” she grumbled.

“Oh really?” And for a brief, enlightened second as Mari looked up at Kyoko, she could see the bad joke coming, heralded by the sly grin on her face. “I thought you were near sighted, and that’s why you wear glasses.”

“You’re so annoying.” Self-consciously, she adjusted her glasses, pushing them up her nose and turning her gaze back to the paper. She smoothed at the creases absently, realising slowly that it was a poster for, “Dodgeball?” A gentle smile tugged at her lips before she quashed it. No need to give Kyoko such immediate satisfaction.

“Dodgeball,” Kyoko agreed, a smile blooming across her face. She flopped down beside Mari on the couch, whipping the poster out of her hands again. “There’s like an amateur competition being held for the college. They want a whole bunch of teams to sign up and do a tournament type thing.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” Kyoko fired back, rolling her eyes. “Come on, it’ll be fun. It’s _free_.”

Mari snatched the poster away from her to read the information properly this time. Yes, free registration. A team can drop out whenever they like and the matches will be played over the break after exam block. Food and drinks will be provided at the venue and the winning team gets a prize.

“You literally just want to join this for the buffet voucher.” She left unsaid that it did sound like fun. Kyoko would hear it in her voice anyway. She’d always enjoyed dodgeball.

“Maybe. You’re just stalling. What do you think?” she pressed, leaning sideways into Mari’s space bubble. “Say yes, we’ll go play dodgeball.”

She sighed, very much aware that she’d probably cave eventually. “Yeah, alright. But it says we need a third person.” Mari indicated the little bubble on one side telling them ‘minimum of three people per team’. “Who’s going to be the third wheel?”

Kyoko smiled at her joke. Even as she opened her mouth to say, “Yui,” the person in question came in through the door. A striking coincidence.

“Oh no,” Yui teased. “Talking about me?”

“Only the good things,” Kyoko sang, twisting. “How’s things?”

“Good. Busy morning. What brings you over?”

When Mari stood to help Yui with the groceries she’d brought home, Kyoko heaved herself off the sofa and bounced after them. “What? I need a reason to visit my two best friends now?”

Mari swatted at her but Kyoko danced out of the way. “You always have an ulterior motive,” she pointed out. “Everyone knows this.”

Yui looped a hand through Mari’s elbow and directed her towards the fridge, pressing her lips to her cheek as she did so. “Leave her alone,” she laughed

“Yeah, Mari,” Kyoko added in a childish sort of whine. “Though actually, Yui, there was something.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, please sign up for dodgeball with us.”

Yui just blinked at her. “Excuse me? Dodgeball?” For answer, Kyoko passed her the poster. “Ah, okay. Well sure, why not?”

“Yes!” Kyoko exclaimed. “This is going to be amazing. We can wear team colours.”

Yui smiled at her. “Possibly getting uniforms for this would be overkill. How about just shirts all the same colour?”

Kyoko chewed on that a moment, bobbing her head back and forth. “You make a good point. Well I’m gonna go and leave you two nerds to your… lunch or whatever.” She waved a hand between them while making a face that said mostly she just didn’t want to see anymore affectionate displays. “Let me know what colour shirts you have, okay?”

Then she was gone. Mari sighed, leaning her shoulder against Yui. “When does this tournament start?” her girlfriend wondered. “I didn’t get to read that part.”

“Not until after exam block,” Mari explained. “They were kind in that regard at least. I didn’t think you’d want to play.”

“And miss out on an excuse to see you wearing little shorts?” Yui teased. “I think not.” Mari’s face went bright red. Damnit, they’d been dating nearly six months and she couldn’t make it stop.

Instead of fighting it, she tilted forwards to kiss Yui softly. “You’re horrible,” she whispered against her lips.

“You love me.”

“Yes I do.”

 

* * *

 

The indoor gymnasium, primarily used for basketball, had been thoroughly decked out white and blue streamers. Mari wondered idly if the university minded all the ticker tape being wasted on something designed – in its entirety – to occupy some of the students over the mid-year break. It’s not like this was an official event, and the barbeque food was for a fundraiser. She supposed it probably didn’t matter; clearly whoever had organised this was as excited about it as Kyoko.

Who was currently on her second can of whatever her current energy drink of choice was. If she had any more of that stuff she’d be too twitchy to play. Yui, to her credit, looked remarkably relaxed about the whole thing. Like she wasn’t worried in the slightest about a ball hitting her in the face.

(Mari was secretly amused that they’d actually managed the matching shirts, too. All in green.)

“Guys,” Kyoko hollered, slinging one arm around each of them. “We’re next. I’m so ready for this.” She squeezed Mari. “You ready?”

“Born ready.”

“Yui?”

“Oh, I’ll be fine.”

Less than five minutes later (which said something about the previous teams’ abilities, Mari thought), they were called onto the court. It was marked simply using the lines already painted down for the basketball games, divided in half by the centre line. Their opponent team was two guys and a girl, none of whom seemed particularly intimidating. Each of them collected a ball before filing onto the court to line up.

Mari estimated they had decent chances providing they could get at least one of them out within the first minute. She glanced over at Kyoko who was bouncing happily on the balls of her feet. Before Mari could think too much on why Yui was wearing a tiny little frown, the officiator blew a sharp note on his whistle and they started.

The two guys threw their balls hard, but not with any particular accuracy and Mari dodged them both without any trouble. The girl though, she very nearly hit Kyoko. In exchange, Mari targeted her straight away; accuracy was more dangerous than force. She missed, but Kyoko’s immediate follow-up didn’t. Kyoko grinned, waving the girl off.

Another ball flew across the court and Mari ducked out of the way, the next one didn’t get anywhere near her and she was momentarily confused by that. Then she saw Yui stepping off to the side, having been hit. Momentarily distracted, she very nearly took the next projectile to the nose, but ducked aside just in time. She and Kyoko replied, knocking out one of the guys.

The last guy seemed mildly surprised to be the only one on his team still standing. He paused to take stock and that was his mistake. Kyoko had one hell of a throw on her and her next ball just about bowled him over. He staggered and the official blew his whistle again: game over.

Kyoko grinned, offering her a high five as they headed over to join Yui. She was smiling too, and slipped her hand into Mari’s as soon as she was close enough.

“You guys play really well,” she noted.

“High school professionals,” Kyoko laughed, by answer.

“Yeah,” Mari added, peering at Yui. “We never got hit in high school.”

Yui must have noticed something in her expression because she pressed a kiss to Mari’s cheek. “Sorry. I’m not particularly good at dodgeball. Or sport in general.”

Kyoko waved her apology away. “It’s no big deal. We won. Just stick close to Mari. She’s a bit of a freak when it comes to dodging balls.”

Mari sighed. “Let’s go get lunch. We’re not playing again until two.”

 

* * *

 

They returned to the gymnasium early enough to watch the match between the teams that would result in their next opponent. All six were guys and they threw their balls with _force_ , as if they had some need to see the other side bleed. That did not bode well.

“Violent,” Yui muttered when one guy took a hit to the knee that had him dropping to the ground. He rolled away from the next ball, but he must’ve hit the knee hard.

“They’re boys,” Kyoko murmured as if that reply answered everything.

“I don’t think that’s a valid excuse for trying to take a guy’s leg off.”

It took longer than five minutes for the winners to be determined this time. When they were there was a ten minute break before they played the next match so the guys had a chance to catch their breath. It was a fair decision, but Mari secretly hoped that they’d be tired and easy to beat all the same. Or, at the very least, that they wouldn’t throw as hard.

This was not the case.

When they lined up on the court and the whistle was blown, the first volley thrown by those three boys was hard and fast. One of the balls caught Yui on the hip, any little amount to the right and it would’ve winded her. She tossed her ball to Kyoko before going to sit down, offering Mari a smile as she went.

By some miracle, Mari managed to dodge the balls flung her way, but unlike Kyoko who was excellent at throwing balls back between sidestepping ones thrown at her, Mari was kept too busy. Two guys concentrated on her while the third exchanged balls with Kyoko. It was very unfortunate. And when Kyoko got hit in the shin (she cursed and stormed off), Mari was by herself.

Being able to dodge them was all very well and good, but she couldn’t get any return throws in there. At least, not very many. When they ran out of balls to throw at her, naturally, she could throw them back. But her aim was hardly as good as Kyoko’s and they evaded her easily.

In the end, it seemed inevitable that she’d get hit. Her thigh stung where the ball smacked into her, but she thought the guys had less force behind their throws near the end. It hurt less than she’d expected.

One of the boys even gave her a high five when they walked off. “You’re pretty quick,” he laughed. Mari just smiled politely and stepped over to her friends.

Kyoko, melodramatically, was bemoaning the loss of her buffet voucher. “It was all you can eat, Yui. But _free_. Literally all the food I can stick in my mouth and I would’ve have had to pay for any of it. This is a dark day.”

To her credit, Yui was merely smiling along with Kyoko. When Mari arrived though she tucked an arm around her waist. “You’re pretty good at that,” she whispered. “Sorry we lost.”

Mari sucked in a deep breath. “It’s not your fault.”

“Well maybe it is a little bit,” Yui admitted. “I got hit first so you were outnumbered. Those aren’t good odds.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Mari decided the red blooming across her face was worth mumbling into Yui’s ear, “You can make it up to me later.” The way Yui’s smile… shifted in that almost imperceptible way suggested that perhaps it would be a very nice evening.

Though obviously Mari hadn’t spoken softly enough because Kyoko interrupted with, “Yes, stop with the eye sex. Who’s going to make it up to _me_?”

Mari – face now five shades darker – couldn’t summon words to respond to that. Yui laughed but managed, “Come on, Kyoko. We can go to the buffet for dinner. My treat.”

“All I can eat?” she wanted clarified, but she followed them anyway. Just in case.

“Sure. Why not?”

Kyoko did a little fist pump.


End file.
